Pages

Monday, September 16, 2013

This month, TCM has been doing a series called “Sundays
with Hitch,” in which they run a full day of Hitchcock movies, ending with one
of his silent films. Here at Hitch Geek Central, it seemed like a good idea to
throw an all-day Twitter party and live tweet our thoughts about the movies in
real time—yesterday and last week. One thing led to another and I’m not sure how many dozens or
hundreds of people followed along. All I know is, by the time Rear Window came on last night, our lil
shindig was one of the hottest discussions in the Twittersphere, with the
hashtags #TCMparty, #SundaysWithHitch and #RearWindow all ranking among the top
ten trending topics on Twitter. Huzzah and a special shout-out to the cool people behind
@TCMParty!

We had some great participation with Hitchcock scholars, authors
and straight-up fans who brought tremendous depth and insight to the chatter. Free advice: jot down
their Twitter handle and follow them! As a recap, I thought I’d arbitrarily
pull 13 of the most memorable messages for your tweeterly delectation (some of these have been slightly edited for clarity):

During Vertigo:

Dan Auiler , author of Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, offered up a poignant
take on the climactic scene from Vertigo:

‏@auilerwriter:
The pain in Scottie's voice, the heartbreak of Judy. It's all so much. "Why did
you pick on me? Why me?" The modern Job's lament

Jim McDevitt, co-author with Eric San Juan of the recent
book Hitchcock’s Villains, maintains convincingly that Vertigo’s Scottie was a true Hitchcockian villain. Here’s a sample tweet:

Here’s a suggested alternate ending for one of the movie’s
supporting characters, from the blogger behind The Lady Eve:

@TheLaydeeEve: Midge would've been better off with Pop Leibel...

During Rear Window:

Great tidbit from Steven DeRosa, author Writing with Hitchcock:

@WriteHitchcock: John Michael Hayes based the Grace Kelly character in Rear Window on his wife,
Mel, who was fashion model pic.twitter.com/LwWhflZRS0

During The Birds:

Tony Lee Moral, author of books on the making of Marnie and,
this summer, the making of The Birds, opened up the party to draw on his
considerable fund of knowledge:

@savehitchcock:
Anyone who has questions on The Birds and Marnie, we'll do our best to answer
until 1pm

During The Man Who
Knew Too Much:

Elisabeth Karlin, playwright, Bodega Bay and moderator emeritus of the Hitchcock Geek Facebook
Fan Page noted a similarity between the ending of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and another Hitch classic:

@ElisabethKarlin: The
final walk down staircase is like Notorious.

Lots of other fans and film geeks weighed in as well:

During the steamy scene in To Catch a Thief, when Francie tempts Robie with her jewels and
low-necked gown:

@JoelGunz:
Excuse me?!My jewels are up here!

To which came this reply:

@Gayer_Than_Thou: Well, MY jewels are down there.

This tweet sums up Rear
Window in five words:

@joelrwilliams1:
Jeff wants 'friends w/ benefits' :/

On inflation in San Francisco's real estate since the time
of Vertigo:

@TCM_Party I
estimate Midge's apartment is worth $10 million in today's market ^PG

Re the last lines To
Catch a Thief, when Francie (Grace Kelly), now engaged to John Robie (Cary
Grant) says about his villa, “Mother will love it up here,” :

@GinnaTonic:
Closing line guaranteed to make every man shudder!!

This guy pretty much sums up the goodness that is TCM:

@MikeShayne: Thanks
to TCM, I have a new favorite Hitchcock movie every Sunday.

As does this guy:

@sbliss89: Forgot
to say earlier, but had a great time with the Hitchcock movies again this week.
Really fun way to watch these films

Pat McFadden brought last night’s party to a perfect
conclusion:

@pat_pending_:
And now going to bed with The Farmer's Wife. Uh... well you know what I mean.
Thanks all for a fun HitchDay!